


Gone but not forgotten

by Alaina_Rhee



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: :(, Angst, Death, Eric's a badass, F/M, Homophobia, M/M, Sadness, Sorry for the sadness, aaric - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-19
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-10-07 02:28:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10350381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alaina_Rhee/pseuds/Alaina_Rhee
Summary: When the group heads to Hilltop to plan their fight with the savoirs, things don't go as expected.





	

Eric smiled over at his boyfriend, who was staring out the window of the rv. Them and a small group, which consisted of: Rick, Michonne, Carl, Gabriel, and Tara, were heading to Hilltop, to talk to the other members of their group that had been staying there. The group had managed to get an okay amount of guns, and raise the number of people who are willing to help fight. However, Eric noticed that none of this reassured Aaron very much. Seeing his friends heads getting bashed in, then being beaten and seeing more friends dead right after, had really changed him. He was way less optimistic, and tried to hide his anxiety with jokes, like he always had. Aaron already had a tendency to feel guilt for things that weren't his fault, but lately it was worse. After Eric took him home the day he was beat, he continously apologized for the gun that was pointed in their direction. He didn't stop until Eric finally said, "It was pointed at you too. But we're both alive so let's not dwell on it. You were hurt, I wasn't." 

"Dad, are we there yet?" Carl asked. 

"Almost." Rick said. Michonne nodded, and Carl grinned, excited to see his girlfriend.  Aaron looked at Eric, lightly squeezing his hand.  "I'm excited to see Maggie. How she's doing." Aaron said, slightly smiling. 

"Me too, I haven't talked to her in awhile. Maybe you and I can go on a run together soon. Haven't done that in awhile either. We can get baby supplies. I know it won't be time for awhile, but things change."

Aaron nodded, thoughtfully. "We haven't. But yeah, we can soon."

Eric smiled at the thought of them going on a run together, alone. 

Aaron returned the smile, obviously thinking the same thing. 

They used to go regularly, but then the whole broken ankle incident happened, and Eric was put on house arrest by a overly concerned boyfriend. 

"I love you." Aaron whispered, because you can't say it enough now a days. 

"I love you too." Eric whispered back. 

"Get a room you two!" Tara joked. 

"Oh shut up." Eric retorted, playfully hitting her shoulder. 

"No seriously! There are kids in this rv." she said laughing, snorting as Carl exclaimed that he wasn't a kid. 

"I _will_  Turn this rv around." Rick said chuckling, one of his hands rested on Michonnes thigh. 

"That's such a dad thing to say." Eric said, laughing as well.

"Well I'm a dad and y'all are acting like children." 

There was a moment of silence, when Aaron quietly asked,

"Are we there yet?" causing the survivors to go into another laughing fit. It felt nice. 

"About 20 more minutes." Their leader said, trying to regain seriousness, but still chuckling. 

10 minutes later, Eric's head rested on Aarons shoulder, smiling contently while Aaron had one of his arms slung around him. Eric wearing Aarons blue jacket because he was cold and Aaron wasn't. That's how it always was. Gabriel was reading.  Tara and Carl were playing a pretty intense game of rock, paper, scissors. Rick and Michonne shared a whispered conversation, both smiling. Suddenly the rv slowed to a stop. 

"Dad why'd we stop? I don't even see the walls." Carl asked, sounding slightly concerned.  

"Savoirs." Rick said grimly. "Stay in here." The leader walked out to confront the 2 savoirs standing infront of a couple of trucks that blocked their way. He recognized them as the ones who beat Aaron. 

Davy and Gary. 

"Well hello there, Rick." Davy said, smirking. 

"How about you call all your people out?" Gary said, although it was more a demand then a suggestion. Rick sighed but nodded and reluctantly called the group out. Aaron and Eric walked out, along with the rest of the group, hand in hand. Aaron immediately let go and tensed to when he saw the savoirs. He gave Eric and apologetic look, and Eric forced a smile to let him know he understood.  
And he did, he just didn't like it.  
At all. 

"Woah, woah, woah. All you people have guns." Davy said. 

"We found them ourselves. We already found even more for you. We just need these to continue to fend for ourselves." Rick explained logically.  
But the savoirs hardly use logic. 

"Hm. But where are y'all heading with all these guns?"  
Gary asked. 

Eric tensed. Now they were endangering Hilltop on their little expedition. Aaron took notice and set his hand on Eric's back. It was small, but the reassuring gesture made him feel better.  
Until Davy looked over at them, glaring.  
But he wouldn't let this guy intimidate him, so he glared back. 

"We were going to find more stuff for all of you," Their leader lied. "Now if you'd let us be on our way-" 

"No way. You weren't finding stuff for us in an rv. That's unpractical, even you know that. It reminds me of the first time we met when y'all were heading to a specific place, but your friends heads got bashed in." Davy smirked as he saw Rick flinch at the horrible memory. 

"Seems like y'all were going on a road trip. Hilltop maybe? Its not that far from here." Gary suggested. 

"No," Rick anwsered looking him straight in the eyes. "The rv is bigger, it can fit more people and supplies."

"Well then. Hand over your guns, all of them, then y'all can continue on scavenging, or your little road trip."

" We need these." Michonne argued. "To survive, and to help get you people more supplies."

"Oh but we need them to survive!" Gary mocked in attempt to anger them, but it honestly made him sound ridiculous. "Well to bad. You all listen to us. You provide for us. Hand them over."

"No. I was told I provide to Negan, not directly to you." Rick said, his head tilted slightly. Gary laughed.

"We are all Negan. Don't you remember? Guess not." Davy said. 

"No. How about half-" Rick started.

"No? You still want to rebel? We didn't say half. We said all. Now I really didn't want to have to do this, but you all need to understand." Davy raised the gun and then-

Bam. 

 

A bullet whizzed past Eric's head, and a lifeless Aaron fell to the ground. 

"No! Aaron!" Eric cried, falling to his knees beside him. But it was to late. Aaron was gone. Tara let out a sob and Gabriel looked horrified. Carl looked at the men angerly. Michonne stepped forward, ready to attack, but Rick grabbed her arm and looked back at them. 

"Oh! Were you 2 together? What a damn tragedy!" Gary exclaimed, chuckling lightly. 

"If I would've known, I would've hit him harder." Davy said with a smirk, causing both men to laugh more. 

Eric slowly looked up at them, tears and pure hatred evident in his eyes. These men had tormented his Aaron for no reason, and then killed him and laughed about it. He knew what he had to do. He slowly got up.  
"You... You guys were the ones who beat him?" 

"Ya, but it doesn't really matter now. He's dead."

"Mhm. You killed him." he whispered coldly.   
All he could hear was their laughter, and it drove him crazy. How could people be so cruel? He looked back at Aaron, and cocked his pistol. And before anyone could stop him or realize what he was about to do, he shot both savoirs in the head and made their laughing stop.  
He dropped the gun and dropped back on his knees by Aaron. The others were speechless. 

"Eric." Rick said. "If Negan finds out...." 

"I solved the problem, Rick. Negan doesn't know we have guns, and now they can't tell him. We can continue to Hilltop." Eric said bitterly, tears forming as he looked down at his fallen lover.

Rick opened his mouth to say something else but Michonne stopped him. 

"His boyfriend just died right in front of him. He took the action we were afraid too. He's right, Negan won't know it was us. We'll ditch that gun, so no one will have it and get caught."She whispered. Rick nodded, picking up the pistol, then chucking it.  
"I'm really sorry. He... He was a good man. Risked a lot for us." Eric could see Rick was crying too as he entered the rv. He knew they had gotten closer, especially with the run they just went on. He looked back down at his lover, running his hands through his curly hair. Tara kneeled down by him, setting her hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry. I really am." Eric nodded. He had managed to keep himself kind of together for a bit, but now he just completely let his guard down. Crying turned into sobbing. Tara pulled him in for a big hug, and didn't let go. He hugged back, and didn't plan to pull away. Tara knew. She understood how he felt. Denise too, had been killed. By the same selfish bastards. It wasn't fair that they got to just do that and not feel anything. But they did anyway. Finally, after seemed like hours, they got up and carried him into the rv, laying his body on the bed in the back. Eric sat by him, holding his now cold hand and just sobbing over the loss of his boyfriend. He had hoped that one day, when things were better, they could get married. There were no more laws against it, so why not? But now it was to late. He wrapped Aarons jacket around himself tighter, inhaling Aarons scent. It didn't feel real that he was gone. Like he would just wake up any minute.

But he wouldn't and Eric knew it.  
He glanced out at the others in the front, who all had somber expressions. Some crying, others not. He thought about all their shocked expressions when he shot the guys. Suddenly let out an emotionless laugh. 

Did they all just assume that the only reason he was still alive was because Aaron was protecting him? Most of Alexandria, Ricks group too? They had both survived by protecting each other. Not just one protecting. They were a team. He laughed again. Well, I showed them right then I guess. I would've shown them alot sooner if I saw those horrid savoirs beating my Aaron, he thought bitterly. But he would've taken the bullet for Aaron. If he just would've known.....

"Um, Eric?" Tara said, quietly interupting his thoughts. "We're here." He got up, as Gabriel and Rick came to help carry Aaron.

He let out a small gasp as they carried him out of the rv. He had avoided looking directly at him. Aaron was so pale, his usually bright blue eyes, glossed over.  
As soon as they were out, Maggie and Daryl ran over to him. Maggie immediately hugged Eric, and Daryl stared at Aaron. He patted Eric on the back a couple times and muttered something about being sorry. Eric knew it was hard on both, as each were very close to him.  
Residents of Hilltop dug a grave for him, by Glenn and Abrahams, and the members of their group, plus Paul Rovia stood around his grave as Daryl helped Eric set Aaron into the grave. Eric let out a sob as they lowered him and started shaking, so Maggie gently pulled him back to stand with her and Tara. 

Eric didn't want Aaron buried here. It was impractical to go back to Alexandria, so he allowed it, but he didn't like it. Alexandria was their home, they had helped build it. He'd never even been go Hilltop, and by hearing the leader, Gregory, complain about everything, he understood why they needed Maggie to take over.  
He stopped crying as they put dirt over his body and Gabriel said a few words. When Gabriel was finished, he quietly thanked him and listened to what the leader was complaining about at the moment.  
"This isn't a cemetery. They can't do this to my community." Gregory said in a low voice. "I don't want his body here, or the sobbing wimpy boyfriend. Never did anything for me."  
Eric narrowed his eyes and stormed over to Gregory.  
Gregory immediately put on an act.  
"Oh, I'm so sorry about what happened." he said with a sickeningly sweet tone. Gregory himself had to look away and roll his eyes.br /> "I heard what you said, dumbass," Eric said angerly.  
"You didn't know either of us, so you have no right to judge."

"I'm so sorry for hurting your feelings." He said sarcastically. 

Then Eric lost it for about the 3rd time that day. He started punching Gregory and he had no intention of stopping.  
"You- didn't- know - him." Eric growled before each punch.  
Maggie and a few others in the group made no move to stop him, but members of the Hilltop yelled and panicked. Finally, Daryl pulled Eric away and a Hilltop man took Gregory to the infirmary. 

"Hey. Hey!" Daryl grunted as Eric tried to pull away. "I know he's an asshole, and I've wanted to do that too but you need to calm down."  
Eric looked at everyone, who had the same shocked expressions. Except Maggie. Maybe she knew. Maybe the rest would stop underestimating him soon.  
"Okay. But I'm not sorry." He announced honestly. 

"You shouldn't be." Maggie said. "He deserved it."

Eric nodded, and forced a small smile, which she returned. 

"You can stay with me, Daryl, Sasha, and Enid. Unless you want to go home. I'd understand."

"I don't want to leave. But I want to get a... Get a few things from the house."

"Ill go with you soon. I'd like to get some of Glenns things as well." she said, her voice slightly cracking.

Eric moved closer, and they tightly embraced.  
"I never got to say sorry. Aaron... Aaron really wanted to see you too. He talked about it in the rv."

"I was excited to see him too. He was such a good person, and just wanted everyone to be okay. He saved me.... Lots of times. He was one of my best friends."

"Mine too." Daryl murmured.

Eric pulled away and hugged Daryl, who seemed slightly surprised but hugged back. 

"Come on, we'll get you settled in." Maggie said, and they walked off, Eric casting one last glance at the newest addition to the graveyard. 

 

After Maggie showed him to his room, Daryl came to sit with him. He stayed silent, as Eric rummaged through the bag, until he pulled out a license plate. 

"Alabama." Eric read. "He found it right before we left."

"Him and those damn license plates." Daryl said with a slight smile. "Always risked his life to get them, with the same excuse each time. 'But we don't have this one yet.'"

Eric actually smiled and slightly laughed. 

"Stubborn as hell, that man."

"He was." Daryl agreed. 

Was. He would never get used to it. 

"Hey. It'll be alright man. We'll get 'em. All of 'em. We'll always be here, Ya know. You're one of us."

"Thank you. That means a lot." 

Daryl nodded in response.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eric had been at the Hilltop for about a 2 weeks now. He had gotten alot closer to Maggie and Daryl and Tara never failed to make him smile at least once when she visited. He didn't cry in front of anyone anymore, only when he was alone. He'd cry when he'd get into the bed, alone.Or when he would turn to tell Aaron something but then realize- He. Wasn't. There. And never would be again. Or when he saw a license plate. He vowed to collect all 50 for Aaron. Daryl would even bring him back a couple and would ask if they had them already or not. Him and Maggie had went togethert to collect some things from their old houses and it was extremely hard for each. They both agreed the houses seemed different, empty without their other halves.  
A good part, was the Gregory was now scared of him and left them all alone.   
Eric always felt alone. Even with Maggie and Daryl, along with Tara constantly visiting. It just wasn't the same. And it never would be. 

Eric slung his bag on, still wearing Aarons jacket. He hardly took it off. He walked outside and sat beside Aarons grave, nodding at Maggie who was already at Glenns. If he was alone, he would talk to Aaron. People thought he was crazy, but a part of him knew Aaron could hear. But when Maggie was there, they would sit and swap stories about Glenn and Aaron. Sometimes Abraham too, for Sasha was there too. Eric laughed and actually meant it when Maggie told how she punched Gregory in the face for Glenns pocket watch, although it made his hatrid for Gregory grow. 

However, today was different. Maggie immediately got up and approached him. He stood up.   
"I want you to help me lead Hilltop."

"What?"

"You're a good leader, a good person. That's what this town needs. I need help, with Sasha leaving so much. And these people are going to need training and skills that you have it we want to beat Negan, and I sure do. So will you? Please?"

Eric nodded. That's what he would do. He would stay and help Maggie lead Hilltop. Aaron would've liked that. And they would defeat Negan. Maybe that would bring a little justice to what he's taken away. 

"I will. We're gonna beat this. For them." Eric said with a determined look, to which Maggie returned with a grin. 

"I know we will. They'll always be gone.... But never forgetten." Maggie said confidently.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry and I'll write some fluff ASAP. But I really hope y'all enjoyed it.


End file.
